1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a weight-cushioning device, for attachment to the handles of a bowling ball carrying bag, and a method of constructing the device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The carrying of heavy bowling balls to and from the bowling lanes has long been a source of discomfort and fatigue for the bowler--often to the very fingers which must impart the accuracy required for a successful match. Most bowling balls weigh from fourteen to sixteen pounds. Along with bowling accessories, such as shoes, gloves, and towels, the ball is customarily lugged about in a specially designed carrying bag having hard, narrow, and decidedly uncomfortable handles. These handles tend to cut off circulation to and numb the fingers on the carrying hand when this tiresome load is transported any appreciable distance. Severely compounding this problem is the recent advent of double ball carrying bags which concentrate twice the load, at least 32 pounds in the case of regulation balls, along the same finger-numbing handles.
Prior art devices have not successfully solved this problem. In the case of the much thinner cord or wire handles on various other types of carrying bags, such as shopping bags and the like, rather simple devices have been implemented to protect the carrying hand. Such devices, however, amount to little more than narrow pads (with upturned, noncushioning sides) which are designed to receive and contact only the undersides of the thin cord or wire carrying handles. The prior art devices are not removably attachable around the bag handles, but usually must be repositioned under the handles each time the bag is picked up. Furthermore, in use, such devices do not form a comfortably padded surface which contacts and conforms to the curved inner surfaces of both the fngers and hand when the handles are gripped. Rather, they have a relatively narrow cross section which contacts only the fingers of the carrier's hand as would the cord or wire without the use of such devices. In short, prior art devices were neither designed for nor readily adaptable for comfortable use on the harder and thicker handles of a bowling bag.